Best Look Yet At The Royal Enfield 750 Twin

Royal Enfield's are a kind of love them or stay wary of them brand in today's motorcycle market, at least since they changed hands with Indian automaker Eicher Motors.

To those that love them, Royal Enfield's offer a simplistic beauty, characterful performance and a true hark back to the old days of motorcycling.

To the rest, they are underpowered, underperforming and have a number of reliabiltiy concerns thrown in. But, hoping to persuade more of us to make the switch, RE have been teasing a new 750cc twin which promises to be a sturdy middleweight competitor, and after a number of half finished spy shots, we've got our best look yet.

Spotted in India, the two bikes appear to be in the final stages of development. Seemingly there will be two versions: a Contiental GT-style café racer and a more straightforward retro naked bike. Both are made around the firm’s new 750cc twin-cylinder, air-cooled motor.

The café racer comes with a more sculpted tank and clip-ons, although the actual handlebars sit above the level of the top yoke. The pegs are also further back, and this example is fitted with a single seat but is missing the hump. The roadster, in contrast, gets a more rounded tank, flatter seat and single-piece bars running above the yoke.

The new plaform is unlikely to be hugely powerful, but hopefully we might see a doubling of the 29 or so horsepower that is the average across their current range of bikes. One thing is for sure, it’s certainly got convincing retro style with those cooling fins.

The retro scene has seen a huge lift in popularity with bikes like the Triumph' Street Twin and the Ducati Scrambler, and the new Royal Enfields are aiming to capitalise as a bargain-priced alternative route. Still banking on the heritage of the brand to alleviate quality control concerns, according to Royal Enfield, while the bikes are being tested in India, the development was done in the UK.

What might be worth noting is that Royal Enfield’s Bruntingthorpe-based UK R&D department has tempted away a number of engineers from Triumph, including former product planning boss Simon Warburton. Even the ex-Ducati styling boss Pierre Terblanche worked on the new twins’ design. Harris Performance, which developed the continental GT's frame also designed the chassis on these new bikes.

With all the elements there, the 750 twin could make for a promising addition to their range. The key factor for it's success will be the price.

Today, a single-cylinder, 535cc Continental GT comes in at £5,199, while the Triumph Street Twin sits at £7,750. In order to undercut its main rivals, the RE will need to come in between £5,800 and £7,000.